That was the title on a poster I drew in 3rd grade. It had ladybugs on a grassy lawn and a lot of litter strewn around with a trash can right in the middle. It won a school contest and I brought home three little trees to plant. Only one made it, but it is a HUGE pine tree in my parents' front yard and every time I see it I am stunned that it is so big.
Anyway, I grew up reading "Ranger Rick" and hearing all those 1970's pleas from the hippie generation to save the planet, and I count litter as one of my biggest pet peeves. (And if you read this blog regularly, you know I have a LOT of pet peeves.)
Last week Spencer and I got together with some members of his preschool class and picked up litter at a local park. It was part of a weeklong citywide cleanup, and I was grateful to Kara for organizing it.
We picked up the usual stuff -- water bottles, Cheetos bags, broken glass -- but the thing that annoyed me far beyond anything else were the cigarette butts. We were at a park with softball fields. And around those fields, under the bleachers and in the dugouts, were thousands of butts. It was disgusting. And my thought, over and over, as I stooped to pick them up, was, "If you are playing softball, a healthy activity, WHY do you pollute yourself with these?" Honestly.
Cigarettes should be outlawed at parks. And if you think that's ridiculous or not fair or whatever, well, fine. You don't have to agree with me. But I would love to hear solutions for this outside of banning them altogether. If people won't walk 2 steps to a trash can there's no reason to expect they'll walk that far to a coffee can filled with sand or another more suitable recptacle.
I filled out a survey for the city that asked whether I litter. Well, of course not. I would be willing to bet that no one who does volunteered to clean up the city. And then it asked why I think people litter. Simple. Because they don't realize (or worse, they don't care) that someone has to pick up after them. I'll keep doing it -- I'll volunteer next year, too, and I'll keep picking up trash while I'm on walks with Pippa or at the park with the kids. It's what I have always done. I believe it is everyone's responsibility to keep their community and world a nice place to live.
I just wish more people thought that.
Mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend. Scrapbooker, family historian, reader, cook, photographer. Volunteer. Political junkie. Springsteen fan. Loves deeply, strives daily to be a cheerful, kind and generous person. Fails regularly. Snarky, judgy and more than a little blunt. Some people don't appreciate my style. If you're one of them, that's ok. Get your own blog.
ME TOO! I hate litter, I feel my blood pressure rising whenever I see someone throw something out their car window . . . I just want cut them off, and walk up to their window and smack in the head. Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!
ReplyDeleteI think most of the culprits are in their 20s, at the time when you think you are invincible and so is the world you live in.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few enlightened individuals who "get it" in their 20s, but for the most part I'd say that 20-somethings and younger think the world owes them a favor. I suppose I was the same way, I'm not sure.
I do know that it sucked to pick up that garbage knowing it will be the same way in a matter of days; weeks.
P.S. I googled the saline sonogram and found a lot of info... I'm sure you probably already did this though!